The Beasts of Tarzan

Tarzan #3

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Not long after Tarzan claims his hereditary title of Lord Greystoke and marries Jane, their infant son, Jack, is kidnapped in London by his old Russian enemies, Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch. Following an anonymous call about the whereabouts of Jack, Tarzan himself falls into Rokoff's trap and is imprisoned aboard a ship carrying Jack. Jane, fearing Tarzan was entering a trap, follows him and also finds herself in Rokoff's clutches aboard the ship. Rokoff sets sail to Africa, eventually exiling Tarzan on an island near the African coast and telling Tarzan that Jack will be left with a cannibal tribe and raised as one of their own.

Genres: Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy, Classics, Pulp, Action, Science Fiction

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.

Reviews

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see a lot of people complaining that this book is unrealistic. Well, you are reading turn of the century pulp adventure, so of course it is! That would be like reading a fantasy novel and complaining that all of the elves and magic is unrealistic.

I, for one, really liked this volume. Tarzan leads an army of trained gorillas to battle while his pet panther rips the throats out of his enemies. If that sentence didn't immediately make you want to read this, then move on. If you are looking for some over the top pulp action, however, this book aims to please.

[Gary Sundell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not your movie Tarzan. Those loooking for Cheetah, see the movies. Tarzan here is hanging out with a pack of great apes and a leopard. Others have recapped the plot. A good solid Tarzan adventure from 1914.

[Tharindu Dissanayake · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We are, all of us, creatures of habit, and when the seeming necessity for schooling ourselves in new ways ceases to exist, we fall naturally and easily into the manners and customs which long usage has implanted ineradicably within us."

Journey continues with the third book of the series. Compared to first two books, this one lags a bit behind in terms of entertaining nature in my opinion, but still a good read.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Beasts of Tarzan”, the third book by Edgar Rice Burroughs to feature his famous leopard-print-loinclothed hero, sees our hero, Lord Greystoke, on a chase to save his newborn infant son from the vile hands of Russian ne-’er-do-well Nikolas Rokoff and his partner-in-crime, Alexis Paulvitch, who have escaped from prison.

The villains take the kidnapped boy to a jungle island, luring both Tarzan and Jane into a trap. Unfortunately, husband and wife are separated, neither one knowing the fate of the other or that of their child. Fortunately, the villains do not count on Tarzan’s dormant jungle survival skills. He quickly gains beastly allies in a black panther, an intelligent gorilla named Akut who leads an army of gorillas, and a black African tribal warrior named Mugambi.

Rokoff and Paulvitch will, of course, soon learn that it was a serious mistake to mess with Tarzan of the Apes.

Exciting adventure abounds in this highly addictive series, written over a century ago.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the first two books were the origin story, this is like an epilogue to that origin. As things open, Tarzan and Jane and new baby Jack Clayton are making a home for themselves in London; then Jack is kidnapped (by Rokoff and Paulvitch, the evil Russian villains -- think turn-of-the-20th-century parodies of "revolutionaries" and "anarchists"; Paulvitch is even a literal bomb-maker -- of The Return of Tarzan), Tarzan sets out to rescue him and thence commences the usual Burroughsian mix of breathtaking adventure, highly convenient (or inconvenient) coincidence and occasional deplorable racial stereotypes (this time expanding out from African natives to include Chinese, Maori and a Swede). And it's ... fine. Tarzan, naturally, gets dumped naked on an island just off the African coast that by incredible coincidence happens to have a tribe of the same (entirely fictional) "great apes" that raised him in his childhood; he also befriends Sheeta, a panther; and if you think you can kidnap the son of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle and not suffer hideous consequences, well, you're probably reading the wrong books.

One nice thing -- Jane actually gets a fair bit of time onscreen, and she turns out to be more than capable of taking care of herself and taking charge of things when the situation demands it.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another action packed Tarzan novel. This one was a bit of a contradiction. On one hand this may have been my favorite of the Tarzan books so far, but on the other hand it was a little more far-fetched then even the previous novels. (If it gets more far-fetched than a human raised by apes, that is.)

I liked this one because Tarzan led a tribe of Apes as well as a panther in battle against evil. But as you can imagine, it requires some suspension of disbelief, especially when they all get on a sailboat to chase the bad guys. It's not nearly as silly as it reads here, however, and is actually pretty cool.

Rokoff and Paulvitch, the villains of the previous novel return, but end up facing Tarzan and his beasts, as the title implies. They also make the mistake of kidnapping Tarzan's wife and son, which Tarzan is not pleased with as he hunts them to the ends of the Earth if needed.

Overall another good Tarzan novel, but no real surprises here.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

- So, your third Tarzan in a row, huh?

- Yes.

- How was it?

- Same old, same old.

- What do you mean?

- Well, Tarzan got in trouble, rushes through the jungle, kills, hunts, eats raw meat etc. Almost gets killed a couple times. Things like that.

- There must be more to it than only that?

- Oh, yeah. This time he hunts the bad guy together with a bunch of beasts; mostly apes but also a panther.

- Sounds weird.

- Not much weirder than Jungle Book, I’d say. The whole posse reminded me of the evil twins of Bremen's Town Musicians to be honest.

- And what about the young and pretty girls?

- Only one, and that’s Mrs T. Had to fight for her own most of the time. Pretty tough when need to be, at other times fragile when the plot requires it.

- I see. Any Sex?

- Nope. Must have happened between book 2 and 3. They have a baby boy now.

- Anything more you like to say?

- No.

- Why not?

- BECAUSE IT’S HOTTER THAN JUNGLE HELL HERE RIGHT NOW AND I’M TIRED OF THIS Q&A BS!


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Married at last, Tarzan and Jane have settled down to life in England, with their infant son, Jack, when Nikolas Rokoff, villain of The Return of Tarzan, returns with a nefarious new plot to pay Tarzan back for constantly frustrating his villainous aims in the last book. The plot involves the kidnapping of Tarzan and Jane’s son as the first stage in a trap to hurt Tarzan. Within a few chapters, Tarzan and Jane are both also prisoners, and Rokoff has laid out his plan to have the infant raised by cannibals.

Then Rokoff makes one of his many mistakes, stranding Tarzan on an island so that he could feel more helpless. Tarzan, of course, is never helpless, and on the island he befriends a tribe of apes and a panther and then captures a visiting native chieftain and begins a journey to the mainland via giant canoe with all of his new friends.

What follows is a very exciting series of adventures in which Rokoff threatens Tarzan and eventually flees from him. For a novel, it sometimes felt a little strangely structured, but these short repetitive adventures make great sense for a serialized stories such as this novel was when first published.

As the story continues, Jane has a chance to stand up for herself and the infant. For the most part, she is both smart and brave, although she does inextricably forget she has a gun during one of her confrontations with Rokoff.

This is another exciting adventure from beginning to end. While I don’t think it achieves quite the heights of the first two books, it is definitely worth reading for anyone who likes the character, Tarzan.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[শালেকুল পলাশ · Rating 4 out of 5]

টারজান তার বউ জেন আর সদ্য প্রসুত বাচ্চা জ্যাককে নিয়ে লন্ডনের বুকে সুখে শান্তিতেই বাস করছিল, কিন্তু সুখ বেশী দিন থাকে না। টারজানের শত্রু নিকোলাস রােকেফ সাথে গায়ের জোরে না পেরে কিডন্যাপ করে তার একমাত্র সন্তান জ্যাককে। ভয় দেখায় সে যদি তার কথা না শোনে তাহলে খুন করে ফেলবে তার সন্তানকে। বাধ্য হয়ে ধরা দেয় টারজান রোকেফের হাতে। রোকেফ বাধ্য করে টারজানকে আফ্রিকার উপকূলে এক দ্বীপে নির্বাসন দিতে। এবং টারজানকে জানায় তার ছেলেকে বনের মাঝে ছেড়ে দিবে রোকেফ। এর পর শুর হয় বনের রাজা টারজানের দ্বীপ থেকে বের হয়ে বনমানুষ আর চিতার সহযোগীতায় তার ছেলেকে উদ্ধার আর প্রতিশোধের যাত্রা।

পাঠপ্রতিক্রিয়াঃ ভাগ্যগুনে সেবার অনুদিত টারজানের ৩ নাম্বার বইটি হাতে এসে যায়। রকিব হাসানের ঝরঝরে অনুবাদ বরাবরের মতই সুখ পাঠ্য।

[Brom Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, more Burroughs - read it on my smartphone. This was arguably, a bit sexist, and/or racist, again, arguably, although not for the times, considering it is early 20th century fiction.

The main thing is, Tarzan has A PET LEOPARD, and loyal band of giant apes in this one, who chew up his enemies through the course of many adventures. Come on. A PET LEOPARD!

While I cannot deny the appeal of this type of reading for me, living in cube land by day, and make no excuses for it, I think that my reads of 19th and 20th century fiction have given me insight into mindsets of the day.

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this huge collection of 25 Tarzan novels, I think for only $0.99 a few years ago. I am slowly going through it. Just now finishing off Tarzan #3: The Beasts of Tarzan. I read the first 7 books way back about 30+ years ago, but now with this collection I aim to continue on and read them all. Lot of good ole Tarzan type action. And yes, written to reflect the times the author lived in.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though the Tarzan stories are over 60 years old they remain timeless. These books are fantastic reading. These books make all the movies and cartoons seem meaningless. Highly recommended

[Qt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read a Tarzan book in a while and was eager to return to his jungle world. My copy is illustrated and I loved the drawings.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

To celebrate "Tarzan of the Apes"'s centennial this month--Edgar Rice Burroughs' first Tarzan novel was released in the October 1912 issue of "All-Story Magazine"--I have been compulsively reading the first novels in what eventually became a series of some two dozen books. Book #2, "The Return of Tarzan" (1913), was a fairly direct sequel to the initial classic outing, while book #3, "The Beasts of Tarzan," picks up the tale several years later. This novel originally appeared in serial form in the pages of "All-Story Cavalier" magazine in 1914 (the popular pulp had debuted in 1905 and would end its run in 1916), with a cover price of...10 cents. It made its first book appearance two years later. The shortest of the first four Tarzan books, coming in at a mere 159 pages (I refer here to the popular series of Ballantine paperbacks of the 1960s, which introduced Tarzan to a whole new generation of readers), it is a relentlessly fast-paced and compact affair, and fairly gripping from its very first page.

On that page, Tarzan--now the father, with his bride Jane Portman, of an infant son, Jack--learns that his archenemy from book #2, Nikolas Rokoff, has just busted out from a French jail. And on page 2, he discovers that Rokoff has wasted little time in wreaking his vengeance on the noble Lord Greystoke. Jack has been kidnapped, and Tarzan and Jane are soon captured and brought by ship to the deserted "Jungle Island," off the coast of west Africa. Tarzan is marooned and left to his fate, Jack is to be handed over to a tribe of cannibals, while the devilish and lustful Rokoff has other plans for the nubile Lady Greystoke. All this, in just the first 13 pages! Ere long, Tarzan explores his desert island, becomes friendly with an ape tribe headed by the intelligent anthropoid Akut, tames a vicious panther named Sheeta (Tarzan's rescue of Sheeta and subsequent bonding with the jungle cat may recall to some readers the Biblical story of Daniel and the lion), and finds his very own Friday: Mugambi, chief of the Wagambi of Ugambi (!), a black native who, ultimately, also bonds with the Ape Man. And so, with this motley crew of man and beasts, Tarzan attempts to make it to the mainland and rescue his son and wife....

"The Beasts of Tarzan," as mentioned, is absolutely relentless in its pace--indeed, the entire novel is essentially one long chase sequence--and wastes zero time whatsoever in setting things up. Bang, right out of the gate, we are off and running, and the thrills just never let up! Action highlights of this entry are Tarzan's underwater fight with a crocodile, Tarzan and his crew invading a ship full of cutthroat mutineers, Tarzan's escape from the clutches of a cannibal sacrifice, and Jane's solo flight through the jungle, the crazed Rokoff at her heels. As usual, the book's chapters are arranged in cliffhanger fashion, with Burroughs practically daring his audience to stop reading. Also, as usual, the novel is presented with overlapping and concurrent story lines alternating for our attention, a device that is a tad confusing in some instances. Still, it all ultimately manages to hang together. The character of Tarzan here is very much the savage we have come to love from book #1 (he was a man of civilization for at least half of book #2), killing his animal prey and cutting out bloody steaks to devour raw. In a fascinating early segment, Burroughs shows us how remarkably proficient the Ape Man is at staying alive in the wild and at woodcraft, as Tarzan, on his first day on his desert isle, makes himself a stone knife, a bow and arrows, a loincloth, an arboreal shelter and a fire; no one on CBS' "Survivor" has ever done better, to put it mildly! The novel is an excellent showcase for Jane, also, who has not previously seemed nearly as brave and resourceful; likewise, the villainous Rokoff is presented as more diabolical, vicious and cravenly than ever, and his comeuppance toward the novel's conclusion is a satisfying one.

"The Beasts of Tarzan," in short, is a highly successful, extremely exciting entry in the Tarzan series, if not a perfect one. Par for the course, Burroughs makes a few flubs here and there (such as when he refers to Rokoff's lieutenant, Alexis Paulvitch, as "Alexander," and when he writes that Tarzan had, in book #1, given the ape Kerchak a chance to escape, rather than Terkoz), but most readers will be too caught up in the fast-moving sweep of events to care, or even notice. As I've written elsewhere, even after almost 100 years, these books can prove highly addictive. For example, in "Beasts," Paulvitch manages to escape Tarzan's clutches and flee into the jungle. Guess I'm going to HAVE to proceed on to book #4 now, "The Son of Tarzan," to see what happens next....

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐ rounded down.

I enjoyed this more than the second entry, Return to Tarzan, though it still isn't nearly as good as the first one, and I don't feel too compelled to continue on with the series.

[Omar Faruk · Rating 3 out of 5]

বেশ উপভোগ্য কাহিনী। ভালো লেগেছে।

[Christopher Roth]

Third in the series. After "Return of," which was a foray into John Buchan style espionage fare, this one is very satisfyingly jungle-oriented, and also includes Jane taking on some courageous action-hero duties. The story is unashamedly bloodthirsty in places—not at all like the sanitized Tarzan of film. Tarzan is quite capable of sinking down into savagery—snapping the neck of a villainous henchman, even while Jane begs him to spare the guy; then he impatiently discards the corpse over his shoulder. For those keeping a close watch on complicated and creepy outmoded racial concepts, these books offer lots to analyze—especially, here, the way-upriver "natives" of the Congo basin, who themselves have elongated arms like gorillas. Burroughs is always interested in filling in the empty space between human and animal with half-animalistic Africans, devolved feral humans like Tarzan, and talking semi-intelligent anthropoid apes, but also, to his credit, with humans—especially Belgians and, in this book, Russians—who sink to a sub-civilized level with very little provocation. Russians and Belgians definitely rank below most sub-Saharan Africans in Burroughs's personal version of the chain of being. On to the next one!

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third installment of my (most likely) month of Tarzan. I really liked this one, priimarily because it sees Jane Porter, once the archetypal love interest/damsel in distress, take the initiative and do some action-heroing (heroineing?) without her husband, Tarzan of the Apes. The first time she leveled a heavy rifle at some fool Russian's head I almost giggled with glee. The rest of the story is pretty standard Tarzan fare, the imagery of Tarzan's new gang sailing down the river is a fearsome and kind of humourous one. I did enjoy this, can't wait to see what happens next.

[Mariangel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tarzan's archenemies from Book 2 kidnap him and his baby and take them to the African coast. Don't they realize that Tarzan will be in his element there?

Tarzan recruits a band of ferocious Apes as allies and befriends a panther. The Beast of Tarzan will loyaly help him in his attempts to rescue the baby, driving his enemies into a superstitious frenzy.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

GOOD FOR SHEETA.

Another good read!
Tarzan makes new ferocious friends
in a more central setting, and we get a lot of awesome heroine Jane action which was lacking in book two.
I also enjoyed the Kala and Jane, motherhood paralells.

“Behind her lay a fate worse than death, at the hands of human beings.
Before her lay an almost certain fate—but it was only death—sudden, merciful, and honourable death”

- Rokoff fear of the animals is what doomed him and saved Jane in the river.

[Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read very little Burroughs and no Tarzan so when I found this slim volume going cheap at a con I grabbed it. The writing style is fairly simplistic but once you get past that and the casual racism (the assumption that white men are superior to the jungle 'savages' is omnipresent but not pushed down your throat; and a tribe leader that Tarzan befriends is counted as one of the eponymous 'beasts' of Tarzan) it's quite a fun story. Tarzan's arch-nemesis Nikolas Rokoff has escaped from prison and is hell-bent on getting revenge. To this end, he kidnaps Tarzan's wife and child and strands the ape-man himself on a jungle island. Yeah, that's like locking the A-Team in a shed, they're helpless, right? It's not long before Tarzan escapes at the head of a pack formed of a panther, tribe of ape-men and tribe leader to rescue his family.

I sort of wish I'd encountered the Tarzan novels when I was younger, they are perfect teenage boy books with lots adventure and men's men where villains are dispatched in appropriately gruesome ways. In saying that, it is very much of its time and the racism and implicit (and sometimes explicit) suggestion that white men are the supreme form of Humanity doesn't sit well. However, if you can ignore that (and it's a big if), there's a lot of enjoyment to be had from this simple story.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third Tarzan novel, originally published as a serial in 1914, sees our hero brought back to the African jungle from his London home when his wife, Jane, and their son, Jack are kidnapped by his familiar Russian enemies. A truly impressive number of twists, double twists, mistaken identities, racial stereotypes, and use of the word "thews" (I had to look it up!) ensues. Jane refreshingly gets chapters all to herself and manages to do a great job taking care of herself. Tarzan builds himself a pack of giant apes and a ruthlessly adorable panther to assist in his quest of rescuing Jane and Jack and getting them all back to civilization. If you can set aside the racism endemic to the early twentieth century adventure novel (especially ones set in Africa) this is a page turner with just the kind of florid style and cliffhangers you'd expect from Burroughs.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like The Beasts of Tarzan so much. What a disappointment. Both Tarzan and Jane Porter prove to be unsophisticated idiots, able to be deceived just as easily as any seven-year-old. This is the clever and crafty Lord of the Jungle? Jane is a professional hostage. The racism is indisputably present it hurts my heart to read it. Yes, I know this was written circa 1914 and is a child of its time. And there are some good things to say about this Edgar Rice Burroughs book. The motley crew Tarzan assembles provided the majority of the entertainment and some of the action sequences are first rate. But the good does not outweigh the bad. Two stars.

[Nuryta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno, lo intenté con la tercera entrega de Tarzán. La verdad, es entretenido, pero me gustó tanto como los dos anteriores.

Tarzán ya se ha convertido en todo un respetado Lord, vive a gusto con su esposa y su hijo. Entonces aparecen dos de sus enemigos rusos y secuestran al bebé, lo que le obliga a ir en su búsqueda, y sin saberlo, también Jane le sigue. De esa forma ambos se ven atrapados en aventuras inesperadas en una isla lejana, donde Tarzán saca a relucir todo lo aprendido en la selva haciéndose de un grupo de fieras que le acompañan y ayudan en la búsqueda de su hijo, demostrando no solo su capacidad física, sino también, el don de liderazgo en las especies animales y con los nativos del lugar.

Otro detalle es que Jane no se queda atrás, pues si bien le toca enfrentar sola sus propias aventuras, algo ha aprendido en sobrevivencia y en resolver las situaciones más insólitas, hasta lograr unirse a su querido Tarzán y juntos encontrar al amado hijo.

Sé que era otra época y que el humor y el concepto de las correrías no es lo de hoy, pero fue entretenido, aunque creo que, por ahora, no volveré a los folletines de Rice.

[Paul Pope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 3/24 from the Tarzan series. Familiar characters in impossible adventures. Romanticized adventure of mans dominion over jungle beasts.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third book picks up some time after the events of the first two (the first two essentially being one complete tale). Seems as if Tarzan has already established his African estate, and he and Jane divide their time between Africa and London. The book opens with Tarzan receiving the news that the previous book's antagonist Nikolas Rokoff has escaped from prison. Together with Alexander Paulvich, he plots to kidnap Tarzan and Jane's infant son in a crazy act of revenge involving handing the baby over to a tribe of cannibals to have him raised as a cannibal himself.

It's like "Ha-ha Tarzan! You rose beyond your savage origins, but your son will become an even worse savage than you!" Somehow this plan manages to be horrific and ridiculously goofy at the same time.

In the process of trying to stop Rokoff, Tarzan gets himself kidnapped, and Jane, refusing to let Tarzan handle it by himself, manages to get herself kidnapped, too. Both end up on the same ship, bound for Africa, unaware that each other is being held captive on board.

There's also a Swedish Chef on board.



Rokoff first maroons Tarzan on an island off the African coast (appropriately named "Jungle Island"), before heading to the continent proper. There, Tarzan beats up and or kills a bunch of Africans and Apes, and in the process manages to obtain their loyalty. Yeah. Tarzan's like that. Lord of the Jungle an' all.

Oh, and he gets a kitty.



So the remaining non-dead African dude, the tribe of apes, and the kitty all escape the island (Tarzan teaches the apes to paddle a canoe. I kid you not). And they head to Darkest Africa in pursuit of Rokoff.

Also, the Swedish Chef helps Jane escape into the wild, and Rokoff heads off in pursuit of them.

A large portion of the book is a chase. And really, it's a quite a page-turner. While I certainly enjoyed the first two books in this series (the first should really be recognized as a genuine literary classic), this one might have been more consistently exciting and gripping.

Jane, herself, is a bit of a revelation for a 102-year-old book. Far from being the shrinking violet always in need of being recused by Tarzan, Jane fully embraces her mothering instincts while proving herself to be quite the badass in her own right.

This is totally Jane:



Except the planet is Africa, the spaceships are canoes, the aliens are Russians, the kid is a baby boy . . . and the gun . . . well, it's still a gun.

There's actually some funny stuff, too. And here I'm thinking of a particular scene where Tarzan gets tied to a stake while cannibals prepare to cook him. But his tribe of loyal apes and his kitty arrive and scare everyone off. At which point Tarzan hopes they'll untie him, but the apes really don't have a clue, and the kitty just rubs against his leg and purrs. So he stands there for about a day in frustrated exasperation waiting for someone else to show up.

The only flaw is really the ending where, in the last chapter, Burroughs introduces a whole new set of antagonists with complex motivations for Tarzan to beat up in order to achieve escape from Jungle Island again. Other than that, another thoroughly enjoyable entry in the series.

The Swedish Chef was my favorite character.

[Max Kaiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tended to drag on a little. The twist in the middle was quite nice

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, I decided to listen to an audio book on a long ride, and this was the one I stumbled across. I had recently mentioned online that Tarzan of the books was articulate and intelligent, in contrast to his film version, but I knew this by reputation only, as I had never read a Tarzan book. Indeed, the book confirmed, but also complicated that view. When at home with Jane in England, Lord Greystoke speaks perfectly good English, and he can call upon that ability in the jungle as well when needed. However, in his “Tarzan” persona, he is more likely to be speaking the primitive language of apes, or attempting to communicate with a tribe of natives whose dialect differs to that he knows from the region of Africa he was raised in, so he often does come across as fairly simplistic, if not quite at the “Me Tarzan – You Jane” level.

Implicit in Tarzan’s use of language, and really all other elements of the novel is a strongly Social Darwinist understanding of the world and concepts such as savagery and the primitive. African languages (and people) are presumed to be one step closer to apes than civilized (white) language and culture is. Apes are a step lower, and the panther appears to be at still a lower level, although Tarzan manages to communicate with it as well, through purrs and growls. Tarzan himself, of course, represents an idealized Noble Savage, who transcends civilized values but remains superior to the true natives and animals of Africa. The villains of the story are degenerate, pseudo-civilized men of “questionable” origin: Russians, Slavs, Swedes, Asians, etc. They are also universally notable for their cowardice, something that could never be applied to the African natives we encounter, who generally react with courage, or at worst with rational fear, when confronted by Tarzan and his army of monsters.

The plot of this book begins with the escape of Rokoff, Tarzan’s long-standing enemy, from prison, and his threatening revenge against Tarzan through Jane and his infant son. Jane and Tarzan are captured and taken to Africa, Tarzan escapes and begins recruiting apes, panthers, and natives to help him recover his wife and child. He fights and kills men and beasts along the way, and the ardors that Jane suffers are described in detail. It’s all reasonably entertaining in its way, but I didn’t find that it engaged me on the long drive as well as the Agatha Christie novel I listened to last time. Maybe I’ll stick with mysteries when I drive up for ACRL in March.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edgar Rice Burroughs -lukumaraton on edennyt Tarzan-sarjan kolmanteen osaan "Tarzanin pedot" (Kirjayhtymä, 1990 - 12. painos). Lapsuuden muistikuvat kirjasta olivat positiivisia ja muistelisin että olisin jossakin yhteydessä saattanut nimetä sen yhdeksi sarjan parhaista kirjoista. Huh huh.

Sarjan edellisessä osassa esitelty arkkikonna Nikolas Rokoff on päässyt pakenemaan vankilasta ja hautoo kostoa Tarzanille. Rokoff onnistuu kuin onnistuukin iskemään pahemman kerran apinamiehen lannevaatteen alle ryöstämällä Janen ja vauvaikäisen Jack-pojan. Sankarimme onnistutaan jättämään autiolle saarelle, josta hän kuitenkin onnistuu pakenemaan yllättävien liittolaisten avulla. Ja siitä käynnistyy itseään toistava piirileikki, jossa henkilöt ajavat toisiaan takaa, välttyvät täpärästi kuolemalta tai "sitä kauheammalta kohtalolta", kuten legendaarinen lauseenparsi kuuluu.

"Tarzanin pedot" ei ole juonensa puolesta mikään mestariteos, eikä päähenkilönkään käytös ole aina sieltä loogisimmasta päästä. Camp-huumorista pitävä lukija pääsee sentään nauttimaan ihmisapinoiden melontareissusta ja parista muusta yhtä älyvapaasta kohtauksesta, jossa ei ole järjen häiventä.

Burroughs ei olisi Burroughs, ellei mukana olisi runsaasti rasistisia stereotypioita, jotka kohdistuvat niin rotuun kuin kansallisuuteen (ruotsalaiset ovat muuten edustettuna peräti kahdella henkilöhahmolla). Ja vaikka kirjan takakansiteksti ei asiaa esille tuo, niin musta alkuasukassoturi on "Tarzanin peto" siinä missä ihmisapina tai kesytetty leopardi... No, aikaansa kirja täytyy suhteuttaa: maailma ei tosiaan ollut Sarajevon laukausten aikaan ihan samanlainen kuin nykyisin.

Lapsuuden suosikkikirja osoittautui siis keskivertoa kökömmäksi tapaukseksi, mutta lukumaratonia ei kuitenkaan jätetä kesken, vaan matka halki Afrikan viidakoiden jatkuu Tarzanin pojan parissa.

[Joseph Pinchback · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's the deal. Edgar Rice Burrows wrote racist things in his Tarzan books. He didn't have a terribly high view of Africans. Sometimes the racism is overt, and sometimes it's more subtle, but it's there. The question for me is whether I want to let this racism ruin what are otherwise reasonably entertaining novels. I'm reading these in order, and I felt like the first two novels had "I'm going to enjoy these books but not recommend them to my nephews" levels of racism. The racism is bad, to be sure, but it isn't overt or consistent enough to completely remove me from the story. The third novel, however, WAS overtly and consistently racist enough to pull me out of the story. It really pissed me off, as a matter of fact. So now I'm at a point where I have to decide whether or not I keep reading these novels. It's a shame, because Tarzan is such a great character. But I'm also really tired of reading about "savage" Africans. Right or wrong, I guess everyone has to decide what their threshold for this kind of thing is. Can we use the old "different time" justification and simply ignore the racism? Should we reject these novels altogether? Fuck, I don't know. I doubt the answer is either one of those extremes, but, seriously, I have no idea. I do know that I don't like the way I feel when I think about this issue. If people weren't such dicks, things would be easier.